


howling ghosts, they reappear

by bereft_of_frogs



Series: let the human in (whumptober 2020) [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Thor: The Dark World, Escape, Gen, Prison, Torture, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:55:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27334534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bereft_of_frogs/pseuds/bereft_of_frogs
Summary: After New York and his failed invasion of Earth, Loki is a prisoner, locked away in Asgard. It is stifling, to be confined like this, but it also represents a certain kind of safety.Thanos would never dare challenge Asgard. He can't reach Loki here.Can he?
Relationships: Loki & Thanos (Marvel), Loki & Thor (Marvel)
Series: let the human in (whumptober 2020) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993756
Comments: 10
Kudos: 84
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	howling ghosts, they reappear

**Author's Note:**

> written for whumptober 2020, day 5: Where Do You Think You're Going (on the run, failed escape) 
> 
> warnings: torture
> 
> fic title: 'King & Lionheart', Of Monsters and Men

The start of the attack is subtle. It’s just a guard, rushing past. Loki doesn’t think anything of it. He’s bored, tossing a bauble into the air to catch it again. He wishes he could float it with magic, like he used to do when he was a child. It would make for a change of pace at least, something slightly different to do

(He’ll be bitterly wishing for the boredom in just a few short minutes.)

The next sign that something is wrong is the other prisoners. The ones in the common cells are not as isolated as Loki is, and rumor travels through them like wildfire. They get excited, like they're anticipating something, and Loki takes notice.

He rises from his bed and moves towards the barrier. There are more guards now, more excitement. The sounds of a fight come from far off.

“Well,” he says aloud. “Now that’s interesting.”

He’s smirking, ready to watch the forming chaos of whatever invasion or rebellion is fomenting within the Asgardian prisons, when the first foreign soldier breaks through the guards ranks and he recognizes the Chitauri and it all slams together. All rational thought flees and panic floods in its place. The careful walls built up around this darkness in his mind shatter in an instant. It took such careful construction over solitary nights of imprisonment, to construct these walls of denial in his mind, and only a second for them to be torn away, for all the pain and memory of torture to come roaring back.

“No.” Loki steps back, away from the barrier. “No, no, no…” He looks wildly around his cell, desperate for an escape, a way out. But he’d been probing the bounds of his cell for months, he knows how secure it is. Asgard knows how to hold prisoners, it knows how to hold sorcerers especially, and it would not have left him any loophole for escape. His last chance is his magic. He closes his eyes and reaches out, looking for the scant traces of magic where his mother had slipped into his cell as a shade so many times.

“I need help. He will kill me,” he tries to transmit through the power. There is no way of knowing whether or not it worked. The magic drains from him and dissipates, vanishing into

There are more sounds, familiar sounds, sounds that haunted Loki for months, then ringing silence. All the guards are dead, he knows this. There is no escape from the heavy footsteps coming closer in the hall.

Thanos steps through the shimmering barrier, shredding it like it was nothing. He has the gauntlet on his hand, that massive thing that had always sat in a place of honor nearby Thanos like an idol upon an altar.

“Loki. What a pleasant surprise, to find you here.” As if he just happened upon him, and did not go out of his way to burrow into the prisons to find him. As if this were not all part of his plan.

_No barren moon._

This is revenge.

“Wait,” Loki says, throwing up his hands in a defensive stance. “Wait, I can-”

“You can what?” Thanos says, his voice echoing in the confines of Loki’s cell. His cell that had been something of a refuge up until now. “You can make it up to me?” He laughs. “We told you what would happen if you failed. We showed you so clearly what would happen, if you did not do exactly what I said!” The last words are shouted.

Loki shudders, but still tries to hold to composure. “I tried, I did my best, I didn’t-”

“You have failed me. I do not accept failure.” Thanos lifts the gauntlet. There is a new stone in it, violet and shining. “You know what I was searching for. The treasure you stole from me and brought back to Asgard, like a good dog. Luckily, others have not been so disappointing.”

Loki’s heart beats very hard in his chest. It’s so loud in his ears that it drowns out the sounds of the prisoners outside. Thanos has him backed into a corner, unprepared. He’d been languishing under the illusion of safety in this cell for nearly a year, shoving away all thoughts of Sanctuary. Foolishly, like a child, he felt like if he didn’t think of it, if he didn’t speak of it, it all wouldn’t have happened. It wouldn’t matter.

The consequences - the evidence that it happened - stands before him now. Looms before him, as Thanos approaches, stalks towards him.

The gauntlet is heavy as it comes down on his shoulder. “Thanos.” He swallows. “Wait-”

“I’ve run out of patience with you, snake.”

The gauntlet closes, shattering his collarbone and shoulder in a second. The shock of it takes his breath away. He doesn’t have long to contemplate the pain of his broken bones because the Stone - whichever of the cursed Infinity Stones that Thanos managed to get his hands on - washes over him, obliterating conscious thought and replacing it with agony.

He may scream. He doesn’t know. All he knows is the pain. He manages to get enough thought to wonder if Thanos means to kill him like this.

It stops as quickly as it began, leaving his nerves stinging. He collapses to his knees, gasping for air. He can’t tell what stopped Thanos, what made him drop him. Loki’s relief is quickly followed by a desperate attempt to prepare himself for the next onslaught. He gasps in air, and tries to brace for more pain. It doesn’t come.

His vision is still slightly blurred, hazed over in echoes of violet. He can’t quite see, but Thanos appears to be battling a group of soldiers dressed in familiar Asgardian armor. There’s some kind of flashing light, though Loki can’t be sure if that’s the lingering effect of the torment, affecting his vision.

He conjures the only small bit of magic he can and splits a hole in the side of the cell. While he’d never had been able to break through before, the ancient spellwork has been damaged by Thanos’s assault. It tears under even his feeble and dying magic and he slips out into the hall. He stumbles and nearly falls, but gets to his feet quickly. He can’t have much time before Thanos destroys the Einherjar and comes after him again.

He’s trying to calculate if he has enough magic left to both hold his shoulder together and to cover himself with a shroud of invisibility, when a hand slides under his uninjured arm and tugs.

“Quickly,” Thor’s voice says in his ear. “We have to move.”

Loki’s knees nearly melt in confused relief. “Thor - you…I thought you were away.” He feels both relief and apprehension at his brother’s sudden appearance and is too disoriented to tease apart the feelings.

“That doesn’t matter now,” Thor says, pulling him further alone the hallway. “Mother told me about a secret entrance here.”

“Mother…?”

“She’s safe,” he assures him. “I will tell you more later. But first, we have to get out of here.”

“What?” Loki’s not following. It might be the lingering pain in his head, the sharp agony in his shattering shoulder, that distracts him. He cannot reconcile Thor's appearance, his apparent desire to help Loki escape, with the memory of their last conversations, with his assumptions about Thor's intentions.

“She commanded me to take you from here.” Thor pulls him further into an alcove. “And told me of a secret exit.”

“There’s been a secret exit in the prisons this whole time? That seems counter-intuitive.” Loki’s teeth are chattering. His mind slips around thoughts. He can’t hold more than one in his head at a time.

“Not if it’s been forgotten by everyone but the queen, I guess. Come.” Thor pulls him along, taking more and more of his weight as Loki’s muscles fail him.

They enter a pitch black corridor. This is more than just darkness. Loki can feel the magic in the corridor that hides it from prying eyes. The shielding spells are thick and as they step through the first layer, Loki cannot help but cry out in pain as the spells pull at his magic. Thor adjusts his grip so he is holding onto him more fully, and pulls him along.

The darkness is complete. Loki sees nothing, feels nothing but Thor’s hand on his arm, on his back, pulling him out of the dungeons. In a brief moment of clarity, Loki realizes how absolutely absurd this all is. That after months of silence, Thor is actually breaking him out of prison. He stifles a laugh, pressing his hand hard against his mouth, not wanting to make a sound and give away their position. The thought reminds him of why they are escaping in such secrecy, what monster stalks them through this darkness, and the humor vanishes in the face of fear.

“Why was…” Thor asks at one point. Clears his throat. “Who-”

“Don’t,” Loki says through clenched teeth.

“I _was_ away,” Thor reveals. “I was on Vanaheim. I came back just in time. I don’t…I have no idea what’s going on.” Loki finds his voice stolen. He cannot explain, so he doesn’t try and Thor doesn’t press any further.

They emerge finally into brightness, a small hole in the rock. Loki stops short at the sudden bite of fresh air against his skin. He gasps in a deep breath, tossing an arm over his eyes at the brightness of the sun after their journey in the black spell, and the months in the dim golden light of his cell.

Thor’s hand closes over his uninjured wrist, pulling it away from his face. His grip is firm like he’s anticipating Loki’s flight. He tugs his wrist again, pulling him into the forest, off the trail.

“Come. I won’t let you out of my sight. We have to move quickly.”

Loki’s not sure if that’s a threat or a promise of protection. Even if it is a threat, he’ll take the refuge where he can, and is in no mood to argue, not when Thanos could be so close behind them.

They stop only in the foothills of the mountains, when it becomes clear that Loki cannot walk for much longer. He collapses against a tree, breathing hard. Thor is also out of breath, standing in the center of the path. He looks angry, glancing back at the battle going on behind them. No doubt regretting agreeing to this rescue attempt.

Looking at Thor now, Loki realizes they have not been alone together since the battle in New York. That moment on the rooftop when Thor extended a last olive branch and Loki had no other path but to rebuke it. That was the last time they’d been truly alone together. He hadn’t come to visit at all since Loki was sentenced.

His hands have started to shake again, now that their mad flight has slowed. The tremor travels down his spine. He distantly feels like he might be sick, but that is overshadowed by the pain in his shoulder and arm, the lingering aches and pains of the gauntlet’s torture.

“Who was that?” Thor asks. “Loki. Who attacks us?”

“I thought you were away,” Loki gasps. There are cold tears on his cheeks. He can’t stop shaking, teeth nearly chattering. “He said-”

_“Who, Loki?!”_ Thor roars. “What is going on?”

His shoulder hurts. His hand is numb. Every cell in his body feels wrung out. The spot on his forehead where the Power Stone bore into his skull still throbs. He cannot answer. He cannot find the words to explain to Thor all that Thanos represented.

Thor gives up his interrogation. He helps bind Loki’s shoulder, pinning his arm close to his chest to keep it immobile while the bone heals.

“You’re not healing as quickly as-”

“I’m drained. And out of practice, I suppose. And,” He laughs bitterly. “I think he probably did something to me. With the Stone, I wouldn’t…I imagine…”

"Loki," Thor huffs, clearly frustrated with his continued refusal to answer. _“Who?”_

Loki shakes his head. “I can’t.”

Thor makes an annoyed sound and rises, stepping away from him.

“I know you think I’m mad,” Loki says. “That Mother asked you to guard a madman.” He sniffs. “I do believe that I am.”

“Our forces are already pushing them back,” Thor says, without acknowledging what Loki has said. “We should-”

“He didn’t bring his whole forces. He wouldn’t risk it, not against Asgard. This is just the…the advance party.”

“What were they doing here?”

“They were here for the Tesseract, I expect,” Loki says plainly. His breath shudders. “And me. Though I might have just been a bonus.”

“Loki, you need to tell me what’s going on.” Thor’s voice is gentler now. Changing tactics. He kneels before him. “I know that you are in pain…”

“You really should have asked,” Loki says. “You really should have asked me who sent me.” He wipes at his nose. His hands are still shaking. “You did, once, and then allowed yourself to be distracted. Of course, you could have - and should have - brought it up again but you never did.”

“What are you talking about?”

Loki takes an unsteady breath. “His name is Thanos. He seeks the Infinity Stones, of which the Tesseract is one. To use for some dark end, I never fully understood his purpose. He provided me the army with which to invade Midgard. My failure, my escape back to Asgard, has apparently…greatly angered him.”

For a long minute, Thor does nothing more than gape at him like a fish. Then he sits down very carefully on the stump across the clearing. “Tell me what happened. You are right. I should have asked then and I allowed myself to be distracted…by Stark, but also by bitter anger. Tell me now.”

“It’s not a pleasant tale.”

“I can’t imagine it would be.”

There’s silence between them. Only the sound of the distant battle and the wind in the trees.

“I’ll start from the beginning.” And so Loki talks. And Thor listens.

It’s not quite catharsis, but it’s something.

They remain in the clearing until dark, until Loki feels he can stand again, then they creep further into the mountains. Thanos is surely still looking for them and until Asgard can fully drive him from their atmosphere, it is best that they stay hidden. As ships pass above them, they duck into the underbrush, hiding in the shadows of the trees. There is a small rush of foliage that creates a small cave, entirely hiding them from view.

They wait quietly, as the ships pass overhead, and then some, just to be sure. They decide to stay hidden there for a while longer.

“I’d have thought you’d have tried to run by now,” Thor says quietly. Loki can barely see his face in the dim light. He can’t read the expression on his face. “Now that you’ve recovered some of your strength.”

Loki turns his face back towards the stars. “And go where?”

“I figured anywhere other than Asgard. Considering you’re still a prisoner here.”

“I would be a prisoner anywhere. Asgard…for the moment, is less painful. So I remain.”

Silence again. The distant sounds of the battle. Closer, small creatures rustling in the bushes.

“I would have thought you’d be back at the battle,” Loki says. “Now that you’ve plucked me from the dungeons, now that you’ve done what Mother commanded.”

Thor merely hums in response. But it’s a familiar sound, encompasses enough of an answer that Loki doesn’t have to press him more.

“You should try to get some rest,” Thor says. “We’ll need to move again soon.”

Loki lets himself fall asleep, flat on the forest floor. It’s surprising that he can at all, that he can let go of the sense of danger long enough to sleep.

He blames it on the exhaustion. It has nothing to do with Thor’s presence.

He only sleeps for an hour or so before Thor wakes him. “We should move.” He sounds strained.

“What is it? The battle-”

“The tide has not turned. But-” Thor shakes his head. “Something grows closer.”

The fear is a sick ball in his stomach. He gets unsteadily to his feet. His magic is still naught more than a flicker within him and his arm is still numb and tingling. Thor gestures towards an overgrown path in the trees, pushing him towards it.

They move quietly through the trees. Loki stops short.

“Did you hear that?” he says sharply, in a whisper. Thor holds Mjolnir tight. “It sounded like…Thor, we have to-”

“Hush,” Thor commands. “Follow me.”

He pulls Loki gently, mindful of his injuries, deeper into the wood.

“We won’t outrun him,” Loki hisses, growing angry. “This is folly.”

“What do you suppose we do, Loki? Run straight towards him?”

“No. That’s not what I meant.” But in his heart he knows the only option is indeed to accept their fate. It will hurt less like that.

He starts to recognize their surroundings. They had played here as children, nearby there is-

“The river,” Thor says. “If we can make it across the river, we can slip into the caves under the mountains.”

“Ah. So you did have a plan.”

Thor glances back at him. “Of course I had a plan.”

“Well, I suppose there’s a first time for everything.” Thor actually laughs at that. Loki feels something akin to hope for the first time since Thanos strolled into his cell.

They can hear the river now, the currents flowing over the rocks. The air is cool and wet. They’re near to safety.

But their escape has been doomed from the start. They never had a chance, not against Thanos. Thanos, who may not have taken Asgard, whose forces are being driven back at this very moment, but who got exactly what he came for, and won’t leave without his other prize.

When they reach the bank of the river, the trap is sprung. A party of Chitauri, commanded by Proxima Midnight.

It’s little more than a small faction. Thor thinks he can take them, extending one hand back to keep Loki behind him and raising Mjolnir with the other. Storm clouds gather, thunder rumbles, and he might have been able to destroy them, if Thanos himself had not followed close behind.

The blue gem sparkles in the gauntlet, alongside the violet now. Loki’s hand reaches out, thinking to grab Thor and somehow spirit them away, though he knows he doesn’t have the strength for it. It’s a last panicked act, his hand closing like a claw around Thor’s arm. The blue light sweeps over them and just before the pain comes Loki thinks with horrified clarity that this had been Thanos’s plan all along. He didn’t truly intend to conquer Asgard - he just needed two things from her. And he’s got them now.

The Tesseract tears them apart. At least that’s what it feels like. It takes them apart cell by cell, and puts them back together.

When Loki is himself again enough to open his eyes, he closes them again immediately. He expected nothing else but to be faced with the cold rock of sanctuary, but to see it before him fills him with terror.

He opens his eyes again to face it.

They’ve arrived on Sanctuary at the bottom of a pit. Its sheer walls rise several feet over their heads. Above are stars and silence. Not for long. Someone is sure to come for them soon. If they’re lucky, it will be one of Thanos’s daughters, who are vicious but calculating. They at least will be measured in their torment, only dealing out pain when there is a possibility of something in return. If they’re unlucky, it will be the Chitauri, who care for nothing else than satiating their bloodlust.

“Where are we?” Thor asks as he gets carefully to his feet. “Where has Thanos gone?”

“Where’s your hammer?” Loki asks.

“I dropped it at the bank of the river. Where is Thanos?”

Loki rises gingerly. He has to brace himself against the wall. He can see claw marks in the stone next to his hand and nearly vomits. He swallows his revulsion down. “He’ll be here before long, I expect. Wouldn’t want to miss his revenge.”

“Damn.” Thor looks at the walls around them, clearly trying to look for some way to scale the sheer cliffs.

“You’re not understanding,” Loki says. “There is no escape. Were you not listening to what I told you? About Sanctuary? _This_ is Sanctuary.” His voice is rough.

“Sanctuary…” Thor stops his seeking. It looks like he is reeling. Which is fair, Loki has dropped quite a lot of information on his head in the last few hours.

There’s the sound of shuffling footsteps above them. Thor moves closer to the center of the pit

“Welcome back,” the Other says, the sound of it echoing in Loki’s head, across the silent and cold rocks around them.

“Who are you?” Thor demands.

The Other laughs. Loki looks up at the Void of space and closes his eyes against his despair.

**Author's Note:**

> So you'll kind of see a similar sort of theme across a couple prompts. The idea for this prompt actually came to me while I was writing '15. Into the Unknown', so yeah, you may see a bit of cross contamination of themes there, particularly Loki's sense that being imprisoned in Asgard at least means he's safe from Thanos. (Which like...here I guess not...) 
> 
> I'm not fishing for anything with this, but I do have to say it's not my personal favorite of the prompts. I'm aware there are probably some inconsistencies, and I really didn't worry too much about the larger plot. Like, how much Loki actually understood about the Infinity Stones plot, even some of the character voices might be a little bit off. I talk sometimes about how my character voices 'degrade' over time, which usually means that I need to take a little bit of a writing break and return to rewatch canon or reread past fics or something. This was one of the last fics I finished in October, so yeah, I think the voices have degraded a bit. I normally try not to talk down my own work, but I guess I'm just heading off any negative plot/characterization comments here. XD Like, I know, you don't have to point it out, I'm aware. XD 
> 
> Anyway! I hope you did enjoy this, before I started pointing out the flaws in it myself. I'm back on Friday with another....sort of weird AU prompt fill. I think you guys might like this one though. ;-) As always, kudos/comments/shares/frogs always appreciated! <3


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